8 Chess Strategies Every Club Player Should Master

This article was written by Daniel Schipper

Chess is a game of strategy, but chess strategies are more than just how you move the pieces. In order to improve at chess and start winning games, you need to understand a little more than how the pieces move. As a club-level player, you should have a good grasp of the basic rules of the game, and you are now ready to understand your moves on a deeper level. It’s more than just how to make the moves, but it’s also about why you make the moves.

Credit: Pexels/Tima Miroshnichenko

What is a Chess Strategy?

My favorite chess writer is the great Yasser Seirawan, and he has written an excellent book on chess strategy that I would recommend for all club-level players. In his book Winning Chess Strategies, Yasser defines chess strategy as: “The purposeful pursuit of a simple goal: to gain an advantage of some sort over your opponent.” So what are the simple goals that you should pursue in a chess game? There are two types of advantages that you can achieve in chess: material and positional. Our strategies are the moves we play to gain advantages over the longer term in a game. Short-term moves that gain an advantage are often referred to as tactics. These are one or two-move threats that often utilize a check in order to gain an advantage. 

The Beautiful Exchange of Advantages

Advantages in chess do not stay static. Often, a material advantage can transform into a positional one, or vice versa. Take a look at this position below.

Black to Play

Here, black is able to exchange their positional advantage, having a passed b-pawn, for a material one. They do this by playing b2, and white needs to take the pawn in order for black not to have an even bigger advantage. This kind of advantage exchange can be seen in many tactics and gambits as well. Trading a pawn in the opening to gain an advantage in space and tempo is very common.

Opening Strategies

Openings may seem like they are all science, with memorized theory controlling our every move, but good theory exists because it lays the groundwork for a good strategy. Our first strategy for every club player is to control the middle of the board. This is more than just simple opening principles, though. This is the kind of strategy that will help you make decisions when you are choosing between moves. If one move allows you to keep one of your pieces more active and in the middle of the board, it is often a strategically superior move.

Controlling the middle of the board.

By controlling the middle, you control more of the game. You set yourself up for success and tactics. Good tactics stem from good positions, and good positions arise when your pieces are well placed.

Bringing your pieces into the game.

To secure those good strategic and tactical positions, you need to bring your pieces into the game. There’s a reason every single theoretical opening involves developing your pieces. No grandmaster opening involves moving a pawn ten times in a row, like I’ve seen beginners play. So, instead, you want to bring your pieces out into the game. If you already know a few lines of an opening, think about why that opening is played the way that it is. The squares in the opening likely has you developing your pieces for strategic reasons. Look at the squares you control, and how they benefit your position. Good positions come from having well-placed pieces, and good strategy comes from good positions.

Chess Players Understanding Pawn Structures

Out of the opening, you should understand the different strategies that come out of the other pawn structures that your openings often bring. For instance, if you play the Caro-Kann and frequently get the exchange variation, it would be helpful to understand how certain pawns become weaknesses in that particular position using what is called a minority attack.

Part of improving at chess at the club level is about being familiar with the different strategies that arise out of your specific openings. This doesn't mean that you absolutely must have ten moves of theory memorized, but understanding that a certain theme may be present because of the moves that have happened and the opening that was played is a vital skill. And it is a skill that can be learned through study.

Middle Game Strategies

Once you reach the chess middlegame, your strategies have to come to the surface. You can get away with memorizing theory in the opening, but if you don’t understand good chess strategy, your position will soon fall apart. So how do you find that middle game plan? Here are a few paths forward when identifying your strategy in the middlegame.

Finding weaknesses.

Your opponent has had to make concessions with their moves. Just like with the example of the minority attack, one way to find a path forward on the chessboard is to find where your opponent is weak. This could be as simple as identifying a pawn that you can add attackers to, or it may be a pin that you want to play off of. Whatever the weakness is, identify it. Not just having tunnel vision on your own moves will help you improve your position and have a roadmap for your game.

Stopping Enemy Counterplay

Speaking of tunnel vision, if you don’t take time to think of what your opponent is planning, then your game will fall apart just as easily as if you don’t think about your own moves. Not only do you need to identify their weaknesses, but you should also identify their strengths.

Making the Most of a Material Advantage

If you can gain a material advantage, the next step is to use various strategies to convert it. For instance, if you are up material, a common rule of thumb is to trade your pieces. This will simplify the game and get you to a winning endgame faster. But if you have a strong attacking position, you should keep your attacking pieces on the board and end the game with a swift checkmate or tactical blow. Either way, you want to make sure you take advantage of your material advantage. Far too often, I see players be up material, but their play barely even takes advantage of it.

Endgame Strategies

Strategy in the endgame could be a book in itself, and it is! There are so many ideas to keep in your head during a complicated endgame that it can be overwhelming. Often, we talk about opening principles in chess, but there are also some basic endgame strategies that can really help you win games.

Identifying winning endgames.

First, you need to be able to identify winning endgames. This isn’t about seeing the future so much as it is about manifesting your future. Suppose you are playing an endgame, and you can see a path forward that involves a passed pawn promoting. In that case, you play moves to that end, it's not that you foresaw all the way to the mate that will happen fifteen moves from now, but you manifested the winning situation for yourself all the way back when you instigated the winning trade that set you on that path to victory.

Now, let's imagine that same scenario, but you don’t see the idea in the first place. You had the same winning position, but you were only able to execute because you knew that particular winning strategy.

Understanding Imbalances.

Endgames, as in the middlegame, often involve imbalances in the position. Hopefully for you, that imbalance is one of material! But it could also be an imbalance in the type of material, or perhaps pawns or even the king's activity. One basic endgame strategy is to involve your king! The king is actually one of the best pieces in the endgame, especially when the only other remaining pieces are pawns. Activating your king can mean bringing it more towards the middle of the board, where it will be ready to help advance your pawns to victory.

Chess Tactics vs Strategy in Chess Games

If you are going to master chess strategy, you also have to master chess tactics. Strategies are in place in order to set up your pieces in an advantageous position, and if you don’t understand basic tactics, you won’t be able to capitalize on that good position. I think of strategy as putting yourself in the right position, and tactics as executing the fundamentals. 

Why You Need to Know Tactics

Once you understand tactics, you can also build a strategy by giving yourself a goal. For instance, if you know you can set up a pin on the king and queen, then that can help guide your moves as you set up for that tactic. Most of the strategies that will help you improve focus on making the most of your position, and you need to be ready to win the game with a tactic.